


Into the 21st Century

by JamieBenn



Series: Prompt Meme Fills [3]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-30
Updated: 2014-06-30
Packaged: 2018-02-06 20:39:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1871706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JamieBenn/pseuds/JamieBenn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the Star Spangled Exchange on Tumblr</p><p>Steve shows Bucky the technology of the 21st century.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into the 21st Century

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TealTumbleweed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TealTumbleweed/gifts).



> Some parts of this stray from this original prompt. There's some violence in this that is a bit strange.

Before he had ‘died,’ he had thought of the future as a wondrous thing. He had thought that going to the future would be an amazing experience. That flying cars would be the best thing to happen to the world, and that as long as he went there with Steve, then he would be the happiest person on earth. Of course, then he went to the future, and they had no flying cars. He was just James Buchanan Barnes, living in a place that he didn’t want to be in.

 

Bucky Barnes had died in World War II. Bucky Barnes had fallen from a moving train, and left his friend alive to fight the war, not quite by himself, but at least without his best friend by his side. Bucky knew that must have hurt. But right in that moment, staring at the touch screen in front of his face, Bucky Barnes thought that nothing cold hurt as much as his jaw, with his teeth grinding together from frustration.

 

The future was amazing at first. Sure, there were no flying cars, but the aeroplanes that they had were some of the coolest things in existence. The first time he rode on SHIELD’s helicarrier, he would have jumped up and down in excitement, if he hadn’t been brainwashed, and Steve hadn’t been trying to stop him from doing what he was doing.

 

But then, everything hit him. All his friends were gone. All of the Howling Commandos were dead. Sure, they had relatives to push on their legacy, but they didn’t have anything that allowed him to see his friends again. There was the museum, of course. The Smithsonian had an exhibition that he’d gone to. He’d been trying to figure out who the hell he was, at the time, and therefore, he hadn’t really known what to expect, but now… now all he could see was Bucky Barnes face, and his friends. He still didn’t think that he was the Bucky Barnes that Steve could remember.

 

Then something else hit him. Everyone was writing messages to each other on something called a ‘cell phone.’ He had no idea how the hell it worked, because there were no wires, and that just didn’t make sense! Then someone had introduced him to a StarkPad, and that had just made everything worse. Not only was it hard to control with his hand that was made out of flesh and bone, but also apparently his metal hand didn’t even work on the screen. He’d wanted to yell Tony out of house and home when he’d found out. He couldn’t believe that the son of genius Howard Stark would create such a failing piece of equipment.

 

He hated to admit it, but he liked it when Steve came over to him and tried to help him work his new StarkPad. It reminded him of the good old days, when he had found himself stuck on a piece of school work in the orphanage, and Steve had helped him as fast as he could, because Steve knew everything, and Bucky didn’t, but he was glad that he had Steve there to help. Good old Steve. He was always a fast learner.

 

Steve had leaned into him, the warmth of his super soldier serum heated body intent on warming Bucky. Bucky didn’t hate it, and he didn’t want to admit that he loved it.

 

For Steve, it had been under a year since Bucky had died. But for Bucky, it had been decades. HYDRA had kept him frozen, but they hadn’t realized that they couldn’t freeze Bucky’s consciousness locked up inside of him. They couldn’t stop him from hearing all of their plans. But every time he woke up, they would bring the Winter Soldier back. They would stop him from yelling out. But he remembered everything.

 

And he missed his best friend.

 

He remembered when they put him to sleep. They remembered when he was frozen. He remembered trying to move, but being unable to. He remembered how hard it was. How difficult it was to stay in his own mind for that amount of time, being unable to watch, and only be able to stare at what was going on in front of him. It was a horror story that he was living in.

 

Steve pointed at something on the screen in front of him, and it was only then that Bucky realised that he had been day dreaming. He looked down at the screen, trying to make sense of what was going on upon it, and what 'Google' and 'YouTube' were. Steve just stood next to him, with a smug look upon his face.

 

“This isn't really my thing, either. But you'll get it eventually.” Steve smiled, “JARVIS?” He asked, looking stupidly up at the ceiling.

 

“Sir?” The AI's English tone stammered through invisible speakers.

 

“Can you please direct Bucky do the YouTube playlist that I began watching last night of all the cat videos?” Steve smiled his smug looking smile again, peering down at Bucky's confused facial expression.

 

“Steve? I don't care about cat videos. I want to look up political events from a non-Russian point of view!”

 

Steve's eyes knitted together at Bucky's outburst. “How do you know the Russian view?”

 

Bucky swallowed, a lump of air falling down his throat. “I remember everything.”

 

**~*~**

 

Steve couldn't believe what he was hearing. He couldn't believe that his best friend remembered all those horrible things that the Winter Soldier had done. Steve lowered his voice. It sounded almost as though the super soldier was cowering. “What do you remember?” He whispered.

 

Steve had thought that Bucky had only known about his life before. That that was all that he remembered. Steve hadn't thought that Bucky remember anything about his time with the Russians. Steve had thought that apart from the conditioning, that Bucky was still Bucky.

 

But Bucky remembered it all. He remembered the blood pouring out of his hands. Blood building up in puddles on the floor because they were pouring out of the wounds on one of his victim's necks. He remembered his knife driving through clothes, skin, and muscle. He remembers his knife colliding with the bone, but how he would continue pushing until he heard a snap, or until they stopped wriggling.

 

At night, Bucky could hear his victims screams, but he would not wake up screaming. He remembered how the Russians would tell him off for screaming when he woke up. He could remember everything about all his victims. He remembered the colour of their hair. He remembered everything about them. He remembered the shoes that they were wearing. The shade of the skin on their stomach. The shade of the skin on their cheeks. What it looked like when they blushed. What it looked like when they bled. The crimson liquid dripping down their stomach, neck, or leg. Bucky remembered everything about his victims.

 

Bucky didn't like the fact that he had to stay with Steve. He didn't like the fact that Steve was worried about him. He hated the fact that Steve would watch him sleeping, and he knew that Steve did. He knew because he was hardly ever sleeping. His eyes were shut, and he was watching his victims' faces disappear behind his cold grin. He could see himself laughing. A version of himself that didn't have any remorse. A version of himself that didn't appreciate his work, and only did it because he wanted to have fun, and he wanted to please his masters.

 

Bucky knew that he was no longer the Winter Soldier, but he knew that those were his hands that killed those people, even if it was not him.

 

Bucky laughed, “Just a few memories.” His eyes unglazed.

 

Steve noticed Bucky go in and out of the haze, but he did not say anything.

 

Steve gestured to a little square that said 'Google.' Bucky didn't know what it meant, but he pressed his finger to the screen as Steve had told him.

 

A keyboard popped up on the screen, and surprised Bucky enough for him to raise his eyebrows.

 

Carefully, Bucky typed in 'Important history of the world after 1940' and waited for the results.

 

He read the page. _260,000,000 results!_ Bucky was excited.

 

“ _1940's Timeline - 20 th Century Timeline – About.com_” read the first result. Bucky jumped excitedly, pointing at the screen with his metal hand, his eyes bright and looking at Steve.

 

Steve grinned, as he watched Bucky begin the journey into the twenty-first century that he himself had started less than two years before.

 


End file.
